Dealer Stands or Hits on Soft 17: What the Rule Costs the Player

A hand is soft when it holds an ace that can count as 11 without the total passing 21. Ace and six is soft 17: it is 17 now, and it would be 7 if the ace counted as 1. Ace, two and four is also soft 17, and so are ace, ace and five, and ace, three and three. A hand of ten and seven is hard 17, because it has no ace to count as 11.

The dealer has no choices in blackjack. The dealer draws a card on any total up to 16, stands on any hard 17 or more, and stands on soft 18 and more. The only total where tables disagree is soft 17. Under S17 the dealer stands on it, like any other 17. Under H17 the dealer treats it as a hand still worth improving and draws one more card.

The reason the rule exists is that a soft 17 is a special case: the dealer cannot bust on the next card. Any card leaves the hand at 12 or better, so the first draw cannot bust the dealer and gives a chance to move up. It can also drop the hand below 17, for example ace and six drawing a five makes hard 12, and the dealer then keeps drawing and may bust later. Whether the table lets the dealer take that draw is a choice about the price of the game.

Take a dealer holding ace and six. Every card the dealer might draw does one of three things, and the arithmetic does not depend on the table.

An ace, two, three or four lifts the dealer to 18 through 21, hands that beat a player standing on 17. A ten-value card returns the dealer to exactly the same total, hard 17. A five through a nine sends the dealer back to a stiff hand that must draw again and can bust. So the extra draw has three outcomes: it improves the hand, it leaves the total at 17, or it risks a bust. The improvements are the reason the rule favours the house, and the busts are the reason the effect is not larger.

The demo above plays this out with fixed cards, so you can see one case at a time. It shows what the rule does to a single hand and says nothing about how often each case comes up. For frequencies, use the house edge figures below.

The comparison table used across this site is six decks, double after split allowed, a natural paying 3 to 2 and no surrender. Changing only the soft 17 rule moves it as follows.

The figure is the average result of one round in units of the starting bet, with correct play and no card counting. It does not depend on how strong you are as a player. It is a property of the table. Standing on soft 17 is worth 0.21 points, close to what moving from six decks to two saves, 0.23. Late surrender, by comparison, is worth 0.09, and allowing resplit aces 0.07.

Because both rules are documented for the same games, the effect can be read straight from the games. Every pair below has the same rules except for the soft 17 line.

The size of the difference is not the same in every game. Spanish 21, with tens removed from the decks, has the largest gap of the three. Rule effects are not additive, so read the table for the game you play rather than carrying one number across.

Each column of the rule matrix shows one setting per game, taken from the rule set in the regulator documents. In those sets the dealer stands on soft 17 in Atlantic City blackjack, European Blackjack and Spanish 21. The dealer hits soft 17 in the comparison rules, Double Deck, Blackjack Switch, Double Exposure, Free Bet Blackjack, Single Deck 6:5 and Pontoon.

Those are the reference settings, not a promise about every table. The regulator documents leave the rule to the casino in several places. New Jersey lets each casino choose it, and the Las Vegas Strip documents do not state it at all. Spanish 21 is documented with both rules, which is why its page gives both figures. When you look at the rules for a real table, believe the felt.

Compare whole rule sets, not one line. Several of the hit-soft-17 games in the list also have other rules that cost the player, such as a short payout or a limit on doubling, and the house edge calculator adds them together for you.

The rule also moves a few close decisions. In the strategy data behind this site, a hard 11 against a dealer ace and a soft 18 against a dealer 2 are doubles at the six-deck table where the dealer hits soft 17, and they are not doubles at the tables where the dealer stands. The list of changed decisions is short, and playing the chart for the wrong rule costs little in one round, but it adds up over many.

The larger lesson is that the correct play is a property of the whole rule set. A chart printed for S17 is wrong in a few cells at an H17 table, and a chart printed for a single deck is wrong in others. The coach at each game's play table uses the rule set of that game.

Most felts print it in a line near the dealer's cards. The usual wordings are "Dealer must draw to 16 and stand on all 17s", which is S17, and "Dealer must draw to 16 and hit soft 17", which is H17. Online, the rules or help screen of the game states it in the same terms.

If the felt is silent, ask. The rule is not a secret and it changes the price of every hand you play. Because it is a small rule with a large effect, it is a good first question when two tables look identical.

This page describes rules and their cost for information. Use the play tables with play money to see the rule in action, and play within limits you can afford.